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What is the meaning of life on Earth?

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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,106 ✭✭✭MoominPapa


    So every time I see the sky I should think "Oh that physical manifestation of the colour blue must either be cold or sad"? Connotations =/= meaning
    Jeeze, lighten up, however next time you are at 90,000 feet I think you'll find its pretty freekin cold


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,203 ✭✭✭Attractive Nun


    MooseJam wrote:
    There is no meaning to life which is fantastic, it's very funny really, me this fabulously complicated and intelligent being and there is zero point to it, it's like asking what is the meaning of water flowing downhill, there is none it just does it.

    I actually think this is the most succinct summation of my opinion on this topic I've seen on this thread.

    Why does water flow downhill? Because of gravity due to general relativity and the molecular composition of water and all sorts of other sciencey gobbledygook I don't really understand. What is the cosmological meaning of water flowing downhill? What a stupid question, there is no meaning - it just does it.

    Why is grass green? Because it contains chlorophyll which absorbs all the colours in the spectrum except green, or some such explanation. What is the cosmological meaning of grass being green? What a ridiculous question, it just is green.

    Why is human life? Because millions of years ago on this planet the conditions because suitable for the existence of simple, single-celled organisms which eventually because multi-celled organisms and over millions of years evolved and diversified into millions of different species of which humans are one, or something. What is the cosmological meaning of human life? What an ingeniously profound question! We are surely the creation of an all-powerful, all-knowing being and put on this earth to obey his immortal laws and worship him so that we may go, after death, into a new world of eternal bliss!


    I really do feel there's a lot of humour in the fact(ish) that our existence is ultimately pointless and we are merely the product of innumerable processes taking place over millions of years that none of us can ever hope to fully understand, yet we have created for ourselves layers of meaning and importance of which I'm sure, in mere hundreds of years, will be looked back upon with ridicule by our our descendents.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,283 ✭✭✭✭Scofflaw


    Subtle, yet o so incredibly geeky.

    I plead moral incapacity - puns are a weakness of mine.

    cordially,
    Scofflaw


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 143 ✭✭lookinforpicnic


    DaveMcG wrote:
    Happiness, altruism, friendship, family, pleasure, enjoyment......... all that good sh*t!

    There is loads of purpose and meaning for you OP.

    Of course there is no meaning (singular) to life, it is a misguided question, which emerges due to (as wicknights points out) the ability to attribute agency and intention to other people, objects, events and of course our own life’s. This attribution of agency and intention very likely evolved for predicting the behaviour of individuals within our social groups (just in case your thinking “well did that behaviour just appear also?”).

    I think though you have to be careful when saying that there is no meaning to life, even though there isn’t of course in the sense that there is one big intention behind us and with the right spiritual resolve you get enlightened or some other crap and discover this meaning. But there are lots of meanings to life, there are lots of things in life where each individual can gain meaning and purpose. To say there is no meaning is only correct if you think that the only type of meaning in the world has to be of a spiritual kind, I like the word meaning and don’t want to throw it away because religious people use it in stupid ways.

    It reminds me of an example by Daniel Dennett where he talks about a fictional race of primitive folk that believe that love is something that happens to you after you get shot by cupids arrow, when we encounter this race of course we will tell them that there is no such thing as cupid and there response will be “what love doesn’t exist” and resist the statement as they know for sure (giving there own feelings) that love is real. Then we have to sit them down and say love is real it is just not what you thought it was.

    Religious folk seem to think that our morality and meaning aren’t ‘real’, that they are derived somehow, they are mistaken, derived is the only kind.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    Why is human life? Because millions of years ago on this planet the conditions because suitable for the existence of simple, single-celled organisms which eventually because multi-celled organisms and over millions of years evolved and diversified into millions of different species of which humans are one, or something. What is the cosmological meaning of human life? What an ingeniously profound question! We are surely the creation of an all-powerful, all-knowing being and put on this earth to obey his immortal laws and worship him so that we may go, after death, into a new world of eternal bliss!


    lol


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,443 ✭✭✭✭bonkey


    Kelly1...

    you say that you believe in God. Your existence is given meaning by the existence of God, as God created you for a purpose.

    You have difficulty understanding the atheist position which lacks this given purpose.

    Thats your belief, and you're entitled to it....but consider the following from the perspective of your belief...

    What is God's purpose? What is God's meaning in life? Why does God exist?

    If there is no higher being than God, then God can have no given purpose, no given meaning.

    Does this make God's existence empty and meaningless?

    If not, then why would a lack of a given purpose or a given meaning have that effect on anything else, were God to not exist?

    If God can give God's existence purpose and meaning, and that is sufficient for God...why would it not be sufficient for an atheist?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    kelly1 wrote:
    Can you be certain of this? Can't you allow for the possibility that there is a purpose and meaning to our existence?
    No I can't be certain of it, but there's no evidence whatsoever to suggest that there is a meaning, so I live my life as if the only meaning it has is the one I give it.

    Makes sense to me. Apparantly not to you.
    bonkey wrote:
    Kelly1...

    you say that you believe in God. Your existence is given meaning by the existence of God, as God created you for a purpose.

    You have difficulty understanding the atheist position which lacks this given purpose.

    Thats your belief, and you're entitled to it....but consider the following from the perspective of your belief...

    What is God's purpose? What is God's meaning in life? Why does God exist?

    If there is no higher being than God, then God can have no given purpose, no given meaning.

    Does this make God's existence empty and meaningless?

    If not, then why would a lack of a given purpose or a given meaning have that effect on anything else, were God to not exist?

    If God can give God's existence purpose and meaning, and that is sufficient for God...why would it not be sufficient for an atheist?

    I'd also like a theist to address this problem.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,025 ✭✭✭Tim Robbins


    kelly1 wrote:
    The meaning of life is a fundamental question and one that deserves to be thoroughly investigated. I think Atheism can be used as cop-out to be frank.
    Surely finding our true purpose in life is something very exciting and meaningful.
    Question:
    If God provides the meaning to our life, what provides the meaning to God's life?
    Answer:
    Either God has intrinsic meaning or like us, He has no meaning.
    Corollary:
    This means that it is possible for our lives to have intrinsic meaning or no meaning at all, even if you believe in God.

    The theological "meaning" argument is simple to rebutt. It doesn't even require negating the existence of God or postulating the non-existence of God.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,026 ✭✭✭kelly1


    bonkey wrote:
    Kelly1...
    What is God's purpose? What is God's meaning in life? Why does God exist?

    If there is no higher being than God, then God can have no given purpose, no given meaning.

    Does this make God's existence empty and meaningless?

    If not, then why would a lack of a given purpose or a given meaning have that effect on anything else, were God to not exist?

    If God can give God's existence purpose and meaning, and that is sufficient for God...why would it not be sufficient for an atheist?
    You've got me there. I don't know what God's own purpose is really. I believe He is perfectly happy in Himself and doesn't need us for His own happiness or to give His own existence meaning. He is perfect in every way and lacks nothing. So I supposed His own perfection and omnipotence is His meaning.

    It's a big question, too big for my tiny mind :)


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    kelly1 wrote:
    You've got me there. I don't know what God's own purpose is really. I believe He is perfectly happy in Himself and doesn't need us for His own happiness or to give His own existence meaning. He is perfect in every way and lacks nothing. So I supposed His own perfection and omnipotence is His meaning.

    It's a big question, too big for my tiny mind :)

    You didn't really answer the question

    God does not have his purpose assigned to him, he figures it out himself.

    If God can exist and decide for himself what his purpose is, without this existence being therefore meaningless, why can't we?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    kelly1 wrote:
    So I supposed His own perfection and omnipotence is His meaning.

    This is utterly ridiculous. I can't even read this tripe any more.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,925 ✭✭✭aidan24326


    kelly1 wrote:
    I don't accept that belief in the one true God is invented. It was revealed directly by God.


    God loves a person regardless of their physical abilities. Even though they don't know it yet, Heaven exists where the just will enjoy the bliss of God forever.

    You are very typical of so many religious believers, you confuse fact with fiction, your own opinions with the hard facts as they present themsleves. There is NO EVIDENCE AT ALL for heaven or an afterlife. None. Zero.

    You can believe it all you want but that's just the cold hard fact of the matter, not my opinion but a fact. If some evidence became available we'd be forced to re-evaluate, but not one single person who ever died has managed to pass us on a message or tell us what a great time they're having in heaven. Not one.

    For an afterlife to be possible it is necessary that our conscious mind be somehow separate from our physical brain, something else which there's no evidence for and which seems very unlikely.

    Also, I find it odd that religious people like yourself should consider the idea of eternal life appealing. Personally I'd find it a bit frightening. Forever and ever and ever with no get out of jail card, no escape. In the words of Paul Davies, forever is a long time.

    What exactly do you plan on doing for the next trillion years?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,111 ✭✭✭MooseJam


    aidan24326 wrote:

    What exactly do you plan on doing for the next trillion years?

    exactly, I don't care how blissfull it is being with God It's going to start getting stale after o we'll give him the benefit of doubt and say 100 years, It would be hell after 1000 years and just imagine 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years , maybe they have ping pong in heaven to relieve the boredom, think about it - really think about what forever means :eek:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,925 ✭✭✭aidan24326


    MooseJam wrote:
    exactly, I don't care how blissfull it is being with God It's going to start getting stale after o we'll give him the benefit of doubt and say 100 years, It would be hell after 1000 years and just imagine 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years , maybe they have ping pong in heaven to relieve the boredom, think about it - really think about what forever means :eek:

    I really don't think religious people stop to actually think about that, to consider the consequences of existing forever. It's very daunting. I get bored easily (praise allah for the interweb!), heaven would want to be a very interesting place.

    The muslims have it sorted though. I like their way of thinking. You'd never get bored with those 72 babes to keep you happy :D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 279 ✭✭adam_ccfc


    kelly1 wrote:
    Consider that a generation after you die you will mostly be forgotten.

    Why live life? What gives life a purpose?
    Hmm, curious wording there, Noel.

    My view is thus: we are, in essence, our genes. We are survival machines (to quote Dawkins on the issue), made of a collection of genes cobbled together, which utilise the survival machine (us) for their continual existence and replication. When we die, it is merely the death of said machine, the genes that constitute our being live on, continue to replicate.

    Every gene that makes up my body (apart, in a pedantic sense, from any minor mutant genes) has lived before me, and will live afterwards. My purpose is to carry these genes for whatever relatively short period of time, and then to give them a safe passage to the next generation.

    Is this an empty, rather melancholic outlook? No, I don't believe so.
    In fact, I find the notion that every individual part of my being is, essentially, immortal, even if I am not, to be quite an ingratiating one.
    In any case, I wouldn't wish to be immortal.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    aidan24326 wrote:
    You'd never get bored with those 72 babes to keep you happy :D

    Figs. 72 figs.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,026 ✭✭✭kelly1


    aidan24326 wrote:
    What exactly do you plan on doing for the next trillion years?
    I believe that the joy that God will give will be ever new and never stale. I believe that through baptism, we become children of God and our souls are transformed into the "image and likeness of God." This happens through God's grace and this gives the human being a dignity far higher than all of creation. Everyone in Heaven will be united intimately with God and share in His
    divinity and endless joys.

    This certainly gives me a good reason for getting up in the morning!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,026 ✭✭✭kelly1


    Wicknight wrote:
    You didn't really answer the question
    Fair enough, I don't know the mind of God.
    Wicknight wrote:
    If God can exist and decide for himself what his purpose is, without this existence being therefore meaningless, why can't we?
    We can of course decide that we don't need God and go decide our own meaning, but that doesn't prove that He doesn't exist and that He has no purpose for us. You can't prove a negative.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,348 ✭✭✭death1234567


    kelly1 wrote:
    I believe that the joy that God will give will be ever new and never stale. I believe that through baptism, we become children of God and our souls are transformed into the "image and likeness of God." This happens through God's grace and this gives the human being a dignity far higher than all of creation. Everyone in Heaven will be united intimately with God and share in His
    divinity and endless joys.

    This certainly gives me a good reason for getting up in the morning!
    What about the people who weren't baptised, what happens them?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Anyone see that old episode of the Twilight Zone where some mobster guy dies and goes to heaven. His guardian angel is showing around and the mobster asks, "How come I got in here and not the other place?" After living the afterlife of luxury the guy eventually goes bonkers because it has gotten so boring and predictable. His guardian angel finally tells him, "This is the other place!"


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,111 ✭✭✭MooseJam


    adam_ccfc wrote:
    My purpose is to carry these genes for whatever relatively short period of time, and then to give them a safe passage to the next generation.

    But it's not a "purpose" , carrying your genes and passing them on is just something we do


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,026 ✭✭✭kelly1


    What about the people who weren't baptised, what happens them?
    God of couse has the ability to baptise a person without human intervention. A person who through no fault of his/her own hasn't heard the message of the Gospel can be saved if God judges that they've lived a good life.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 143 ✭✭lookinforpicnic


    adam_ccfc wrote:
    Every gene that makes up my body (apart, in a pedantic sense, from any minor mutant genes) has lived before me, and will live afterwards. My purpose is to carry these genes for whatever relatively short period of time, and then to give them a safe passage to the next generation.

    Is this an empty, rather melancholic outlook? No, I don't believe so.
    In fact, I find the notion that every individual part of my being is, essentially, immortal, even if I am not, to be quite an ingratiating one.

    I don't find much solace really in knowing that my genes will carry on to the next generation, I take much more solace knowing that my memory or my ideas or my personality will be remembered or influence the people around me. Identifying myself with my genes I find very empty, my cultural experiences is was I identify with myself.

    (maybe this reasoning is because my genes are not an unique set -I'm an identical twin by the way, my brother can pass my genes on for me!... naw just kidding thats not the reasoning behind it.)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,483 ✭✭✭✭daveirl


    This post has been deleted.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,026 ✭✭✭kelly1


    daveirl wrote:
    This post has been deleted.
    You can never prove that God doesn't exist. Just because you don't experience Him with your physical sense does not prove His non-existence. Which fact are you referring to?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,025 ✭✭✭Tim Robbins


    kelly1 wrote:
    You can never prove that God doesn't exist. Just because you don't experience Him with your physical sense does not prove His non-existence. Which fact are you referring to?
    You can't really prove anything outside Maths. You can come up with some very strong arguments which rebutt the existence of God. But first you have define God.

    What is God? An all loving, all powerful, all knowing being.

    If an all loving, all powerful, all knowing being exists why do kids get Cancer?

    It is impossible for an all loving, all powerful all knowing being to exist and for kids to get Cancer. Either he is:
    1. not all loving - he doesn't care about the kid getting cancer
    2. not all powerful - he can't do anything about the kid getting cancer
    3. not all knowing - he doesn't know the kid got cancer.

    But the implication either way is:
    an all loving, all powerful, all knowing entity does not exist.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,026 ✭✭✭kelly1


    You can't really prove anything outside Maths. You can come up with some very strong arguments which rebutt the existence of God. But first you have define God.

    What is God? An all loving, all powerful, all knowing being.

    If an all loving, all powerful, all knowing being exists why do kids get Cancer?

    It is impossible for an all loving, all powerful all knowing being to exist and for kids to get Cancer. Either he is:
    1. not all loving - he doesn't care about the kid getting cancer
    2. not all powerful - he can't do anything about the kid getting cancer
    3. not all knowing - he doesn't know the kid got cancer.

    But the implication either way is:
    an all loving, all powerful, all knowing entity does not exist.
    First you have to ask yourself, what causes cancer. Is it bad diet, mobile phones, radiation, toxic substances, stress etc. You can't blame God for these things
    and neither do you know that God causes cancer.

    Apart from that consideration, God always has our ultimate good in mind. For a child who does have cancer, his untimate fate is really what's at stake, not his earthly pain. God can permit suffering to bring us back to our senses. Lots of people only think of God when things go wrong, when we hit rock bottom and are forced to assess our priorities and purpose. Maybe it's the child's parents/relatives who need waking up? This life is only a pilgrimage to our final destination.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,225 ✭✭✭Ciaran500


    kelly1 wrote:
    First you have to ask yourself, what causes cancer. Is it bad diet, mobile phones, radiation, toxic substances, stress etc. You can't blame God for these things
    and neither do you know that God causes cancer.
    He's all powerful, he can change everyone one of those things.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,025 ✭✭✭Tim Robbins


    kelly1 wrote:
    First you have to ask yourself, what causes cancer. Is it bad diet, mobile phones, radiation, toxic substances, stress etc. You can't blame God for these things
    and neither do you know that God causes cancer.
    Well pick a genetic disease that has unquestionable nothing to do with mankind or enviroment?
    Apart from that consideration, God always has our ultimate good in mind. For a child who does have cancer, his untimate fate is really what's at stake, not his earthly pain. God can permit suffering to bring us back to our senses. Lots of people only think of God when things go wrong, when we hit rock bottom and are forced to assess our priorities and purpose. Maybe it's the child's parents/relatives who need waking up? This life is only a pilgrimage to our final destination.
    Yes that's the standard rebuttal: God knows better in the long run.
    But the rebuttal to that is that you are saying you and your faith knows better than logic. I'll stick with logic.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,026 ✭✭✭kelly1


    Ciaran500 wrote:
    He's all powerful, he can change everyone one of those things.
    What about free will? A God who forced us to love Him, wouldn't be a loving God, would he? We would be slaves.

    God, being the good Father he is tells us "don't play with knives or you'll get cut". But we of course knowing better than God go ahead and get cut. God let's us make mistakes to teach us lessons.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,025 ✭✭✭Tim Robbins


    kelly1 wrote:
    What about free will? A God who forced us to love Him, wouldn't be a loving God, would he? We would be slaves.
    1. You would have far more free will to love God if we unquestionably knew he exists.
    2. You don't really have free will, because if you don't do what God wants you get punished. Hardly freedom if there is a fear of punishment.
    God, being the good Father he is tells us "don't play with knives or you'll get cut". But we of course knowing better than God go ahead and get cut. God let's us make mistakes to teach us lessons.
    You are missing the point about the child / cancer argument. The point is that the child has done nothing wrong and is still getting punished. How can there be any free will with genetic diseases?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,026 ✭✭✭kelly1


    1. You would have far more free will to love God if we unquestionably knew he exists.
    I don't think so. God requires faith from us. Anyone who saw Him could never deny His existence. Think of what happened to the fallen angels. The could see God in all His glory and yet they rebelled against Him and were cast into Hell never to be redeemed. We on the other hand can't see God so those who have faith can expect a very great reward to believing without seeing. Also we get lots of second chances unlike the angels.
    2. You don't really have free will, because if you don't do what God wants you get punished. Hardly freedom if there is a fear of punishment.
    True freedom is in doing God's will because sin is slavery. We make ourselves slaves of the devil.
    You are missing the point about the child / cancer argument. The point is that the child has done nothing wrong and is still getting punished. How can there be any free will with genetic diseases?
    What causes genetic disease. Was it there from the beginning of mankind or was it caused by man made radiation or somesuch?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,025 ✭✭✭Tim Robbins


    kelly1 wrote:
    I don't think so. God requires faith from us. Anyone who saw Him could never deny His existence. Think of what happened to the fallen angels. The could see God in all His glory and yet they rebelled against Him and were cast into Hell never to be redeemed. We on the other hand can't see God so those who have faith can expect a very great reward to believing without seeing. Also we get lots of second chances unlike the angels.
    There is no good evidence of what happened to the fallen angel is what you think happened.

    Are you a father? Would your children have more or less free will if you hid your existence from them?Do you hide yourself from them like "god" hides himself from us in order to give them free will?
    True freedom is in doing God's will because sin is slavery. We make ourselves slaves of the devil.
    You are using rhetoric here not logic Noel.
    True freedom is doing whatever you want without worrying what other people / entities / Gods are going to do to you.
    What causes genetic disease. Was it there from the beginning of mankind or was it caused by man made radiation or somesuch?
    It depends on the disease. But what did the person who had the disease do to deserve it? Please answer that. Do you think it is right that people get these diseases?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,026 ✭✭✭kelly1


    True freedom is doing whatever you want without worrying what other people / entities / Gods are going to do to you.
    Isn't that exactly what you're doing?
    It depends on the disease. But what did the person who had the disease do to deserve it? Please answer that. Do you think it is right that people get these diseases?
    I'm not God, I don't know! Sh1t happens.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,483 ✭✭✭✭daveirl


    This post has been deleted.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,025 ✭✭✭Tim Robbins


    I'm not God, I don't know! Sh1t happens.
    Well you are happy believing without answering that, but for many people those questions are ample reasons to adopt a position of disbelief. It is impossible for a lot of people to reconcile an all caring, all powerful, all knowing creator with the existence of genetic diseases not to mention that most mammals are eaten to death. A universe without an all loving, all knowing, all caring creater makes more sense.

    Good luck, pleasure chatting to you.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,794 ✭✭✭JC 2K3


    kelly1 wrote:
    Can you be certain of this? Can't you allow for the possibility that there is a purpose and meaning to our existence?
    What is this "meaning" you speak of?

    Like, define "meaning", what the hell is "meaning"??
    kelly1 wrote:
    Absolutely! I believe that when I die, I will go to Heaven, assuming I've lived a good life according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This gives me hope knowing that I'll continue to exist after my physical body dies. I live in the hope that life in Heaven will be beautiful and joyous beyond words. I truly believe this will all my heart and soul and I don't believe this is a fairy-tale!
    What is the "meaning" of life in Heaven?
    kelly1 wrote:
    Material things will never make me happy because it's a hunger that can never be fed and feeding it only makes the hunger grow.
    Gotta agree 100% there.
    kelly1 wrote:
    The meaning of life is a fundamental question and one that deserves to be thoroughly investigated. I think Atheism can be used as cop-out to be frank.
    kelly1 wrote:
    You've got me there. I don't know what God's own purpose is really. I believe He is perfectly happy in Himself and doesn't need us for His own happiness or to give His own existence meaning. He is perfect in every way and lacks nothing. So I supposed His own perfection and omnipotence is His meaning.

    It's a big question, too big for my tiny mind :)

    That sounds like a cop out to me. You've hardly thoroughly investigated the question if you're going to come out with something like that.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,026 ✭✭✭kelly1


    daveirl wrote:
    This post has been deleted.
    I don't see how more than 1 god could exist. There must be one who created the others or there is only One.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,483 ✭✭✭✭daveirl


    This post has been deleted.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 279 ✭✭adam_ccfc


    MooseJam wrote:
    But it's not a "purpose" , carrying your genes and passing them on is just something we do
    No, I believe that it is a purpose. We are survival machine built by our genes for the express purpose of passing the genes on.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,794 ✭✭✭JC 2K3


    adam_ccfc wrote:
    No, I believe that it is a purpose. We are survival machine built by our genes for the express purpose of passing the genes on.
    And what is the purpose of survival?

    Passing on genetic information is just an arbitrary function of mankind.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,026 ✭✭✭kelly1


    daveirl wrote:
    This post has been deleted.
    I'm no philosopher but the concept of multiple gods seems illogical to me. They would all have to be uncreated because a created god would be lesser than an uncreated god. Surely there would be a power struggle
    among uncreated gods? I don't know.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,111 ✭✭✭MooseJam


    adam_ccfc wrote:
    No, I believe that it is a purpose. We are survival machine built by our genes for the express purpose of passing the genes on.

    what about back in the beginning, when there was only self replicating molecules, was it the "purpose" of the molecules to replicate or was it just something they did


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,553 ✭✭✭Ekancone


    kelly1 wrote:
    Hello all,

    I'm just curious, according to atheists and agnostics, what is the purpose and meaning of our lives on Earth?

    Consider that a generation after you die you will mostly be forgotten.

    Why live life? What gives life a purpose?

    Kind regards,
    Noel.


    Personally i find the pleasures in life very desirable and so i seek them out and they give me a reason to live. Other than that there is no purpose to life, the whole universe will probably implode at some point in the next X billion years so its all a ****ing waste anyway.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,026 ✭✭✭kelly1


    Personally i find the pleasures in life very desirable and so i seek them out and they give me a reason to live. Other than that there is no purpose to life, the whole universe will probably implode at some point in the next X billion years so its all a ****ing waste anyway.
    Does pleasure satisfy us ultimately? Doesn't it cause pain e.g. hangover. Pleasure only scratches the itch but the itch comes back stronger than before. So I reckon there's more to life than seeking pleasure...


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,553 ✭✭✭Ekancone


    kelly1 wrote:
    Does pleasure satisfy us ultimately? Doesn't it cause pain e.g. hangover. Pleasure only scratches the itch but the itch comes back stronger than before. So I reckon there's more to life than seeking pleasure...


    Pleasure can be the love felt from your family, it doesnt have to be sex, drugs and rock&roll.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    kelly1 wrote:
    Does pleasure satisfy us ultimately? Doesn't it cause pain e.g. hangover. Pleasure only scratches the itch but the itch comes back stronger than before. So I reckon there's more to life than seeking pleasure...

    I reckon there's more to pleasure than getting drunk... Maybe your itch comes back stronger, but when I experience pleasure through love for example, the "itch" (if you want to call it that) goes away. The more you progress in a relationship -- getting married should you choose to, having kids, creating a home environment -- the more the itch goes away.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 279 ✭✭adam_ccfc


    JC 2K3 wrote:
    And what is the purpose of survival?

    Passing on genetic information is just an arbitrary function of mankind.
    JC, I think, fundamentally, we're speaking in different terms.

    Now if we are discussing this at the level of the gene as opposed to the organism, I don't know that there is a 'purpose' to continued replication. Genes replicate because they do, and that's that! No doubt that's not going to satisfy you, but it's all I have to offer. I don't think we need attach any sort of reason or motive to their doing so. They are blind replicators.

    When I say that our own purpose is to pass on genetic information, I mean the purpose of the individual organism. This is unambiguously so; survival machines are built for that purpose and that purpose alone, and it is not merely an 'arbitrary function' as you term it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,794 ✭✭✭JC 2K3


    Built?

    ZOMG, CREATIONIST!!!

    But yeah, I get what you mean, but I still think the human instinct to survive and pass on on genetic information is merely an arbitrary function, since "purpose" seems to imply something grandoise and supernatural - to me anyway....


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 279 ✭✭adam_ccfc


    JC 2K3 wrote:
    Built?

    ZOMG, CREATIONIST!!!
    Hehe :D
    JC 2K3 wrote:
    But yeah, I get what you mean, but I still think the human instinct to survive and pass on on genetic information is merely an arbitrary function, since "purpose" seems to imply something grandoise and supernatural - to me anyway....
    Well, if it's any consolation, I don't intend for it to sound in the slightest way supernatural, IMO it is anything but!


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